


Abyssus Abyssum Invocat

by Himmelreich



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 17:00:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2032827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Himmelreich/pseuds/Himmelreich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>On a rational level he was aware that it was not normal to see dead persons, to follow their commands and to discuss with them. On a rational level he was conscious of the fact that he had a couple of serious mental issues. On a rational level he had reservedly analysed that he suffered from multiple compulsive neuroses, a grave posttraumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia of the paranoid type. On an irrational level he had simply started calling himself Lunatic and begun to put the received commands into practice.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Abyssus Abyssum Invocat

**Author's Note:**

> Older One-Shot I translated from German for practice.

“…so accordingly we’ll just settle this as a matter of routine if there are no objections from your side. Uhm, Judge Petrov?  
  
Yuri startled. He suddenly realised that somewhere in the middle of his conversational partners’ explanation he had totally spaced out, and to make matters worse, he had apparently meditatively been stirring in his tea cup the entire time. He cleared his throat, laced his fingers in order to stop them from further subconscious vacuum activities and glanced at the man on the other side of the desk, trying to make an unquestionably authoritarian impression.  
  
“Of course. I cannot surveil each and every last one of your actions personally, after all, so please deal with this matter on your own”, he explained coolly. He could see the man shrinking under his icy glare, muttering a “Please pardon the intrusion” and hastily withdraw from his office.  
  
As soon as the door closed behind him, Yuri sighed and rubbed his eyes, burning from fatigue, anxious as usual not to ruin his make-up. That would be the absolute worst after all, if his carefully guarded cover got blown by some tiny inattention such as this. For an instance he remained in that position, eyes closed, allowing himself a few seconds of catharsis, before he pulled himself together again and took one of the court files from the yet-to-work-on pile. He was angry at himself, angry at his body, which now had obviously reached its limits and could no longer keep up with his wake and ever raging mind. At university he had been able to spend multiple nights up studying in a row and still being alert the next day, and now it was two days without sleep and he had to fight the danger of falling asleep at his desk.  
  
“Well, one does not get younger after all”, me murmured bitterly. Not as if he had ever felt young in the first place. Maybe back then, as a child, before everything had gone so terribly wrong. He could not remember. He reproved himself to kindly focus on the court records in front of him when he realised that his reminiscing dangerously fomented the voices in the back of his mind. His workload had to be done and he must not have anything deter him from doing so, he told himself. The day was for work, the night belonged to Thanatos.  
  
The rational part of his mind, the part which had made him into the unbelievably successful attorney and judge, the part which could analyse every case instantly and see through every attempt of deception on the part of defendants or witnesses, no matter how well-played it might been, this part repeatedly informed him that he was now really, really, really at his limits. On a rational level he was aware that it was not normal to see dead persons, to follow their commands and to discuss with them. On a rational level he was conscious of the fact that he had a couple of serious mental issues. On a rational level he had reservedly analysed that he suffered from multiple compulsive neuroses, a grave posttraumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia of the paranoid type. On an irrational level he had simply started calling himself Lunatic and begun to put the received commands into practice.  
  
Yuri caught himself reading the very same sentence for the third time now. In his defence it had to be noted that the sentence was spanning five lines and was written in the most complicated and stilted Legalese the author apparently was capable of, but still, it was clear evidence that he was absolutely at his limit. He unwillingly got up, stepped to the sun-blind covered windows and peeked through the slats. He saw some of the prominent buildings of Sternbild, some advertisements blinking, saw this entire superficial and decadent scenery and turned away in disgust. This world simply was not his, the thought grimly.  
  
In this very moment a part of this world which was so absolutely not his, decided on abruptly bursting into his office without prior knocking.  
  
“Ah, pardon me, but Lloyds sent me. Would you have a minute?”  
  
For a few seconds Yuri simply gave the intruder a blank stare, contemplating whether it would even make any sense to correct him on his manners, and if so, where to start. Finally he decided in favour of his nerves to scrap the idea altogether. With this man it was a lost cause in this aspect.  
  
“Let me have a wild guess: In your inappropriate officiousness you have yet again rendered a citizen’s property into smouldering ashes”, he simply offered coolly and took a seat. There goes the short break, he thought tiredly.  
  
Kotetsu Kaburagi smiled sheepishly and let himself drop into the seat opposite of the desk, without so much as to wait for an invitation.  
  
“It was for a good cause”, he then assured, looking at Yuri from earnest, big eyes.  
  
“Isn’t it every time with you?” Yuri asked wearily, taking a file labelled ‘WILD TIGER/KABURAGI, KOTETSU – DAMAGE REPORTS’ in capital letters out of one of the desk drawers. By now the file had reached a considerable size - and it was the only Hero file Yuri never stashed away farther than in one of the drawers since he had to update it on an almost daily basis anyhow. He casually flipped through it, more for show than as if to actually confirm the amount of recent incidents, before he shuffled it over the shiny and reflecting desk top to Kaburagi with a sigh.  
  
“There were four complaints over the course of the last three weeks, two have already been settled extrajudicial by Mr Lloyds, as for the other two you could aim for a composition”, he explained matter-of-factly and starred at Kaburagi as intensely as he could in his current state. He wanted to be on his own now, and therefore this matter had to be cleared as quickly as possible.  
  
To his frustration, however, his normally very successful intimidatory tactics did not work out this time at all. Kaburagi simply whistled commendatory and weighed the file in his hands before he apologetically offered: “I cause you quite a lot of work, Judge, don’t I? Sorry ‘bout that.” He sheepishly scratched his neck.  
  
Yuri felt the corners of his lips involuntarily twitch, just for a split second and kindly unnoticed by Kaburagi. This man had absolutely no idea just how much work he in fact did cause him. Until this very day Yuri’s shoulder hurt, he could no longer sleep lying on his left side and to make matters worse his shoulder joint was now meteorosensitive; and all that just because he had helped Kaburagi out. He had only been able to patch it up as well as he could himself back then, since going to the hospital would have given him a difficult time of explaining himself. With someone like him, who practiced no sports whatsoever in public, much less any sort of martial arts, it was inevitable that questions would have been asked, questions that were dangerous.  
  
Much more than with the physical pain, however, he was occupied with the question as to why he went through all of that in the first place. Thanatos ordered him to punish sinners, to give them according to their deeds, to erase their depraved existences – not to rescue failed heroes.  
  
And it was exactly because he saved this man that he had not been able to extinguish the true evildoers at once. And the worst of it all was that he could not even blame Kaburagi for it.  
  
“I had indeed hoped that after your relegation into Second League you would cause less collateral damage”, he answered instead, not without having a little sarcasm drip from his tone. It was generally known that “relegation into Second League” was an acknowledged synonym for “Wild Tiger’s loss of NEXT powers”.  
  
Kaburagi did not do him the favour of reacting to this provocation accordingly.  
  
“Ah, well actually none of the newer incidents had anything to do with my powers”, he said in an inexplicably jolly tone, “but more with my general bad luck. If I use my Hundred Power or not, the outcome stays more or less the same.”  
  
“So you will be able to live on even without your powers?”  
  
The question had escaped his lips without him even intending it to form on his tongue. Yuri halted, irritated. What had he just done? He had stepped into a territory that was absolutely taboo, a territory that he did not even want to step into. And even worse, his question had sounded worried. He was worried about Kaburagi. He was worried about his daughter. He was worried; worried that everything might start anew. He heard the blood rushing in his ears and felt the voices and thoughts whirring in his head.  
  
“Of course.”  
  
It took a moment until this flat statement had reached through to him. Kaburagi looked at him in unimpaired well-humoured fashion, and however much he tried it he found no hints at that the man was lying to him.  
  
“Is that so?”  
  
His voice came out strangely throaty, he felt completely exhausted. He did not know why he had allowed himself to be cast into that fit of panic. Had he really expected that Kaburagi, that kind-hearted, idiotic altruist could turn out to become just like his father? And even if so – why should he bother?  
  
“That’s so.”  
  
Kaburagi leant over the desk, too close actually for Yuri’s taste, but personal space was one of the many concepts Wild Tiger was not aware of, and glanced at him with shining eyes.  
  
“It’s not like it were the powers which automatically turn you into a hero after all, you know.”  
  
Yuri raised his eyebrows in question.  
  
“It is not?”  
  
“No“, Kaburagi decidedly shook his head, “it’s the intentions one has. “  
  
“You are an idealist”, Yuri dryly noted. It did not really surprise him to hear this corny ethics from Wild Tiger.  
  
“Not in any way more than other people”, Kaburagi shrugged and suddenly there was a pensive look on his face.  
  
“Maverick considered himself a hero as well. He believed in his cause. He was sure to have done the right thing.”  
  
Yuri smiled cynically.  
  
“Idealism will blind you. If you believe in your own cause, you will turn oblivious for everything around you. And if this belief is shaken-“ he broke off.  
  
“You seem to despise idealism”, Kaburagi noted and eyed him surprised, “and yet I would have thought that you as a judge would believe in your cause just as much as I believe in mine.”  
  
Yuri contemplated a moment on his answer.  
  
“I am an idealist, Kaburagi. Maybe even more than you are. But I know that this renders me vulnerable and thus I am trying to compensate for this disadvantage with precaution.”  
  
The second part was a lie. He had not applied any precaution when rescuing Kaburagi. On a rational level he was very aware of the fact that this conversation was madness, he should just have him fill in the set form and then kick him out of the office. On an irrational level he wanted an answer now, an answer he had been looking for his entire lifetime in vain.  
  
“When you have lost all of your powers, what will become of you?”  
  
A drinker? A thug? A murderer?  
  
Kaburagi did something absolutely out of place, as usual for him. He burst out in sudden laughter before with some effort recollecting himself and giving Yuri a warm look.  
  
“So you’re actually worried about me, huh, that’s very compassionate of you. But believe me, no matter what happens I’ll stay a hero until the very end. And if it’s just when helping my mother weeding in the garden or driving my daughter to the Hero Academy, than that’s fine with me. Because I only want to help people, it doesn’t matter how.”  
  
Yuri abruptly got up and stepped to the window, turning his back on Kaburagi. He did not want him to see the look on his face which was somewhere between a relieved almost-smile, utter disbelief, annoyance due to this ridiculous naivety and something that he could not quite define. He blinded out the voices’ taunting whispers and spoke to the window.  
  
“That is quite an aim you have set yourself there. Taking such a huge step downwards composedly aks for greatness. Or foolishness.“  
  
He turned around and saw that by now Kaburagi sported a wide grin.  
  
“Well, I have been attested both so far. I will be able to cope with it in any case, assumed they don’t jail me for vandalism before, that is”, he demonstratively tipped on the file in front of him.  
  
Yuri silently returned to the desk, took out a matching printed form and handed it to Kaburagi.  
  
“Here, and now I would appreciate if you would be so kind as to leave. In contrast to yourself I still have some work to accomplish today”, he remarked coolly.  
  
Kaburagi thanked him with nod of his head and left the office. In the door frame he waved back at him before disappearing from view entirely.  
  
Yuri combed through his long hair with both hands. Even though he had just senselessly wasted a not inconsiderable amount of his precious time, he for some inexplicable reason suddenly felt better. The voices were duller now; the urge to give in to their whispered commands had grown less. Maybe he should simply sleep this night. He could still kill sinners the next day.  
  
On a rational level he explained this effect by the fact that the short distraction had been some kind of a break after all. On an irrational level he was in a weird way relieved, relieved to know that maybe with his own death it would eventually all end, that this eternal vicious circle of hatred and despair would not repeat itself.  
  
If he allowed himself any emotions but hatred and bitterness, he would feel happy for Kaburagi, for his unshakable courage to face life and his belief in the good existing in this world, that much he knew. And he decided that no matter what would happen, he would never kill Wild Tiger, even if Thanatos would order him to do so. Because this little bit of dusted valour, this little relic of his glorious father’s heritage, it must not disappear; it must not be extinguished by such a wretched existence as him.  
  
Maybe in the end that was the greatest difference between them both, the fact that Kaburagi was absolutely confident of his actions and only did what he personally thought of as right while Yuri was living according to the doctrine of someone else. Time would tell which justice, which heroism would win in the end.  
  
And on an irrational level, for this short moment, Yuri sincerely hoped that it would not be his.  
  
  
  
 


End file.
